Hockey-rink dasherboards have to be robust enough to survive being crashed into by players. In hockey-rinks, dasherboards generally are surmounted by glass-shield panes to protect spectators from errant pucks. These panes should have a corresponding robustness, and the manner in which the panes are attached to the dasher boards also should have a corresponding robustness.
The dasher boards are built around a structural framework of metal or wood, which is attached firmly to the (concrete) floor of the rink, around the edges of the playing surface. The framework is faced with panels of wood, or more usually of plastic, and preferably of impact-deadening plastic. The ice-facing surface of the dasherboards is deliberately kept smooth and edge-free, in an attempt to minimise injuries when players crash into the boards.
Typically, the dasherboard structure is e.g thirteen of fifteen centimeters wide, and the glass-shield panes are e.g 12 or 15 mm thick. Traditionally, the glass-panes have been mounted at a roughly halfway-across-the-width location on top of the dasherboards. As a result, traditionally, in hockey rinks, there is a sill, or upwards-facing ledge, some six cm or so wide, at the junction between the dasherboards and the glass-shield panes.
This horizontal sill or ledge runs round the entire rink. It faces upwards, and is at a height, typically, of approximately one meter. Of course, the rink-owners see to it that the upwards-facing sill is covered with impact-deadening materials, but even so, many injuries are caused to players who crash into the boards while falling, whereby all too often it is the player's face or head that strikes the upwards-facing surface of the sill.
An aim of the invention is to reduce the injuries that are attributable to the traditional window-sill.